I have enjoyed this thread, and would like to thank those who have shared their knowledge.
I was in the body and fender industry as a kid, and learned some of the same techniques through magazine tech articles.
My question...how to approach a tri color urethane, base coat/color coat finish... Think early style scallops.
I have no experience using this material, but could use an education.

Have you chosen your colors? ie. (Body color, scallop color etc.)
Is the ground base coat a metallic or solid?
Is the scallop color a tri-coat as well?
Is the scallop ground coat color a metallic or solid?
Is your mid coat a clear base coat with a dye or is it a pearl?
What brand of paint material are you planning on using?
What kind of car is it that your planning on painting?
What is your substrate?...2K primer, Epoxy original paint etc.

If you could answer these questions, after which I'm sure I'll have more, it would be a good start to helping you reach your final painting goals.

My apologies Ray, and thanks for your reply,
I'm close to finishing a scratch built, fiberglass bodied 1926 track roadster.
The body has been highly modified from the original shell I bought from Poly-Form, a bit over 25 years ago. The quality of the fiberglass is still in mint condition.
Most of the body mods have been done in the last 5 years. I have used 2K primer, and block sanded 1 time with 120 dry, so far. I am unsure we're to go from here. I will block sand 1 more time but do not know what grit to use before my seal coat.
So.... Base color would be 2003 Ford Toreador Red, which is a deep burgundy with a bit of metallic. The main color for the scallop would be a cream color, with no metallic, and a gold metallic 1/4" stripe. This would all be done using base coat/ color coat urethane.
The same supplier we used when I was a kid is still in business, they handle DuPont brand.
I'm unsure how to answer your question about a mid coat...I have never heard the term.
If I have opened a can of worms on this thread, let me know.

Okay, first of all, my apologies...I re-read your post and when you posted "Tri color", I misunderstood, I thought you posted tri coat...totally different, we can forget about a mid coat....What your planning on doing is much easier and I'll be happy to walk you through it.

Being that your working on a fiberglass body, an Epoxy primer would have been the primer of choice...but a 2K primer will work. You have block sanded the body with 120 grit, a little aggressive, but we can over come that.

What to do now would be to use guide coat, and re-block your body with a grit no finer than 220 grit...in coarser grits it's a good idea not to step up in grit sizes of more than 100 grit...example, if you start blocking with 180 grit, your next grit should not be finer than 180. This is so that you can eliminate the sand scratch foot print of the previous grit, seeing that you blocked with 120 grit, your next step would be 220 grit.

After you have blocked the body with 220 grit paper (and apply virtually no pressure on the block to make sure that you are in fact straightening the body and not just erasing the guide coat), apply 2 to 3 more coats of 2K primer, allowing proper flash times between coats and let it cure. Apply more guide coat and start blocking with 400 grit dry paper...repair any low spots with a 2 part polyester putty (if you need information on how to do this, let me know and I'll give the information). Re-prime the repaired areas, again allowing proper flash and cure times and block with 400 grit paper.

When the body is straight and blocked with 400 grit...I like to block the body with 600 wet paper, again apply guide coat and block until the guide coat has been sanded away. Wipe down with wax and grease remover...now it gets a little tricky and there are several ways to go.

If you have used a quality 2K primer...NO sealer is required...you can go from primer to paint. Seeing that your stripe is 1/4 inch wide (fairly wide stripe), this could be the first color you lay down...you will need to visualize where the scallops are going to be and and paint the area where you want your stripe gold...get coverage, allow the gold to flash and now mask off your scallop using 1/4 inch fine line tape. When your happy with your outline of the scallops apply the cream color over the entire area that will be scallops....allow it to flash.

Mask off the scallops (mask off everything except the areas of the body that you want to be red), leaving the 1/4 fine line tape in place (because it's gold underneath the tape) and apply your Toreador Red base coat, get coverage, allow flash times between coats and when the red is dry, remove all the masking paper and fine line tape and you should have the paint scheme you wanted with gold pin stripe, white scallops and red body...tack the body and apply at least 3 coats of clear (you can apply more if you like but you will need at least 3 coats to be able to color sand and buff the tape lines out of your scallops and gold stripe, if I know I'm going to color sand and buff I usually apply 5 coats of clear...just to be safe).

The other way you could do this would be to prep the body the way I described, apply your white for your scallops first, mask off your scallops, apply your red...then lay down your pin stripe with 1/4 inch tape and mask on either side of the stripe, remove the 1/4 inch tape where the stripe is to be, mask off the entire body and spray your gold for your stripe and clear...I prefer to do it the way I first mentioned...it eliminates covering the tape line between the white and red colors of the scallops and body and eliminates masking the entire body.

It is time consuming and tedious, good paint work always is and I hope this helps. If you have any further questions or need more clarification, feel free to ask and I'll help where I can.

Ray

The Following User Says Thank You to 69 widetrack For This Useful Post:

Thank you very much Ray,
This is a whole new process for me, I totally understand. The first description would be the way to go. I agree wholly. Sim
You explained it very clearly.
Thanks for all your advise.

how about scallops, but the ones with the rough edges like the tape was torn. I have done some with my slot car and air brush but am thinking of doing my Harley. maybe black base then a small bit of pearl in the base and mask the scallops or lace it

Here is one of my very few scallop jobs. They are curved instead of straight... but that's about all I have.

I did always like scallops. I feel they were the first hot rod graphics, as I remember them from rods and slat flat cars of the fifties. Of course they were forgotten pretty quickly when flames took over in the sixties!

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